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Shells Gathered
by Melinda Tuhus | Aug 3, 2007 2:15 pm
Commenting has been closed | E-mail the Author
Posted to: Arts
I’ve often thought that all warriors who survive war with any sense of humanity intact must all suffer from PTSD. “Gathering Shells” at the Little Theatre confirms my belief.
Prosaically subtitled, “A Play about War and Its Impact on American Society,” the production is a collaboration between the Homefront Theater Company at the West Haven VA hospital and Quinnipiac University’s Theatre for Community. It was co-written by Vietnam veteran Allan Garry and Q.U. theater professor Crystal Brian. It closes its three-week run with performances Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.
The story revolves around the Veteran (played by Garry), who struggles with his demons after his service in Vietnam, especially his damaged relationship with his daughters, and the Daughter (played by Rebecka Jones), who only knew her World War II veteran dad as a volatile, angry alcoholic. The two wander in and out of scenes from Stephen Crane’s Civil War story, “The Red Badge of Courage.”
The Daughter sees firsthand the horrors of war, appalled that the soldiers themselves seem callous toward the pain and death all around them. The Veteran explains it’s the only way to survive - and thus begins the compartmentalization and denial that often leads to post-traumatic stress disorder. To the oft-heard claim that only those who’ve been in battle can understand what soldiers suffer, she retorts that she’s a victim too.
Henry Fleming (Matt Alspaugh) is the young soldier who happily joins the Union Army, really, because everybody else is. He rejects his mother’s sensible pleas to stay on the farm and, while waiting for a battle to start, wonders if he’ll stand his ground or run. “He’s more afraid of being seen as a coward than of being dead,” the Veteran explains to the Daughter. Still true today…last year I interviewed a mother who lost her son in Iraq, a young Marine who insisted on being the first one through the door to search an Iraqi house, and took a bullet in the chest.
I found Fleming the most riveting character in the play. Alspaugh convincingly conveyed enthusiasm, self-doubt, horror, compassion and numbness as he moved through his company’s maneuvers. His scream after a comrade died in his arms pierced right through me.
The actors in this production include veterans, VA drama therapists, college students and professionals. It includes Allan Garry’s original poetry, and music performed by the Veterans Homefront Band (recorded for Thursday’s performance, but live at the Sunday matinee). It’s a work in progress. See it now, and see it down the road if an opportunity presents, as it evolves.
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